This week all girls have been thinking about aspects of online safety in their IT lessons.

I have done my best to trick the older girls into giving away information, which they should know needs to be kept private, by sending them a phishing email. “Phishing” is a form of Internet fraud where criminals aim to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. Like me, these criminals send official looking communications which urge swift action and threaten sanctions if the instructions are not followed. They often contain links that direct you to a false website so that they can collect your information. I’m pleased to say that my pupils, your daughters, quickly began to question why the information was needed and many declined to complete the requested tasks. Some, however, divulged more than they should have and let’s hope that that is a lesson well-learned.

The younger girls have been discussing exactly what constitutes personal information and the steps we must take to protect it. We have contrasted what we might do in the virtual world quite readily with how loathe we would be to do similar things in the real world. They have been urged to check all privacy settings and to be sure not to leave the “front door” wide open.

Last week I attended the Parent Zone’s Digital Familiesconference where the results of some very recent research were published. Some important findings I noticed were that 73.6% of parents feel that their children spend too much time on the Internet and 31.3% think their children put too much information online. Click the link below to read the full report yourself and do get in touch with me if you have any concerns about staying safe online.

Hello and welcome back to a new term! We hope you all had a restful summer (parents included) and are looking forward to the new term. This half term the English department is launching several new opportunities:

English Logo Design Competition:

Calling all designers! The English Department needs a logo to represent English on displays and publications. Submit your design to your English teacher by Friday 25th September. It should be in black and white on A5 paper. Prize available for the winner!

‘Student of the Half Term’:

This half term will see the first round of awards given for ‘Student of the Half Term’. One student will be selected per year group who deserves recognition for hard work, commitment, outstanding class contributions, quality of homework or classwork, or progress. Nominees will have their photograph displayed on the celebration wall, as well as recognition in assembly and prizes awarded. Could it be you?

‘Where will your book take you?’:

We are keen to see where your book takes you! Take a photograph of you reading your book in unusual places and hand it in to your English teacher. This is an ongoing opportunity so keep thinking as you go out at weekends and on holidays. Check the board as you come up to English to see where books have taken other students and your teachers! How far round the world will we get?

On Thursday 17th September Mr Clawson is offering an Indian special in place of his regular week 3 menu option. On this day, girls will be able to choose Beef Dopiaza or Spinach and Lentil Curry (which is a long standing favourite with staff and pupils alike).

These will be served with steamed rice, Madras potatoes, onion bhaji, cucumber raita and mango chutney. For dessert he is offering mango sorbet.

During the past year Mrs Garlick has worked with a team of teachers to bring a trading kiosk to Alfriston to support the Enterprise curriculum. This week all her hard work has paid off as the kiosk opened for the first time to sell healthy snacks during the morning break.

Every break time pupils are now able to purchase fresh fruits, oat snacks and cheese rolls to eat as a mid-morning snack. This gives them the opportunity to practise their communication and money-handling skills as well as to develop good healthy eating habits.

They will be served by other pupils who are marketing, making and selling products through cross-curricular courses aimed at developing their business and enterprise skills as well as their functional skills in English, maths and ICT.

In the future we hope to develop the range of products on sale, extend our opening hours and expand our client base. Christmas is likely to be a time of high activity!

It is important that we have adult support to ensure the success of the enterprise and the safety of our pupils. Many teachers and support assistants are involved but if any parents or friends would like to get involved, we would be pleased to hear from you so that you can be included in rotas over the coming weeks. Please contact Mrs Garlick for further details.

2015 is the year that could change the lives of the 58 million children who are still missing out on school.

This year we are asking pupils to consider what they would do if they were world leaders.

Actually a lot been achieved since 2000 when the campaign started. World leaders have definitely been listening, and Send My Friend to School has made sure that the UK is one of the biggest donors to education. Here are a few of the achievements:

50 million more children are in primary school than in 2000.

There was strong progress between 2000 and 2008 – if this had continued, all children would have been in school by 2015.

The number of girls in primary school has increased. There are now 97 girls in school for every 100 boys.

Rwanda and Vietnam have all increased children in school by at least 85% since 2006.

Ethiopia is sending 2.2million more children to school, and India is sending 5.5million more than in 2000.

In the UK around 5 million school children have taken part in Send My Friend to School, reminding world leaders to keep their promises. Students have persuaded over 1,000 MPs to go ‘back to school’ for a day.

However there is still much to do and the figures in these facts need our attention:

58 million children are missing primary school, and a further 68 million are missing secondary school. That’s 126 million children not in school today.

1 in 3 children missing out on school have a disability.

Nearly half of children out of school live in conflict areas.

There are still 31 million girls of primary school age who have never been to school.

If the current pace continues it will be 2086 before all children go to primary school, and 2111 before they complete lower secondary school.

About $26 billion is needed every year to pay for the extra schools and teachers needed to educate every child.

So what about the girls?

In the past 15 years, billions of pounds have been spent on giving education to girls, and huge improvements have been made. But much more has to be done. At the United Nations General Assembly in August and September 2015, world leaders must renew efforts to get ALL children into school, including girls.

Facts

Of the 781 million illiterate people in the world, two thirds are female.

In the developing world, 31 million girls do not go to school.

Three countries have over a million girls out of school: In Nigeria there are almost five and a half million, Pakistan, over three million, and in Ethiopia, over one million girls.

Since its launch in 1988, Red Nose Day has become something of a British institution. It’s the day, every two years, when people across the land can get together and do something funny for money at home, school and work.

This year it’s on Friday 13th March and the theme for 2015 is Make your face funny for money!

Here at Alfriston we are planning to support the campaign by making a gallery of funny selfie faces. You can have your funny selfie included for a small donation of £1 or more. In case you don’t know, a selfie is a photo you take of your own face, usually on your phone but actually we don’t mind how you take it as long as it is a photo of your FUNNY face. Print it out or email it to Mrs Shorrocks so that we can include it in the gallery at school once you have made your donation. If you don’t have a camera or a phone, we will be setting up a selfie photo booth in school during 9th -12th March and the gallery will be open for viewing on Friday 13th. There will be a prize for the funniest face voted by staff on the day.

If you’ve got a face, all you have to do is to make it funny and take a selfie to raise loads of life-changing money.

After a delay of 1hr5mins we boarded the plane. A smooth flight and landing. Taken to sort out equipment and onto the hotel which is in centre of town. Settled into rooms and then sat down to a three course meal which everyone ate because it was so delicious. A swift walk around the beautiful town and now girls are in bed!!!

Arbour Vale and Alfriston are getting on very well, already working as one group. More news tomorrow after first day of skiing :)

Miss Leahy & Mrs Knibbs
Hello All

What a day! Early start with 6.45am call for 7.30am breakfast, everybody had a good appetite and ate well. Bags were packed and ski gear layered on before heading off to pick up skis and boots. Took the gondola to the top of Pila, lots of fresh and powdered snow and four instructors to greet our group of 12 students. Two ability groups were formed of which Kia was put in the more able group. The rest of Alfriston were in the beginners group, where massive progress was made, starting the day on one ski and finishing the day performing stem turns coming down the mountain.

What an impressive day-Maisie performing stem turns with good control; we were so impressed. Jade-responded well to all instructions and very was determined to master all techniques, made massive progress to confidently turn. Rosie-Ann-keen to work with her friends but had a fall, through which she lost confidence but by the afternoon she had learnt to control her skis with stem turns-she’s now back on form! Beatrice-started off very tentative so much so that she couldn’t put her skis on to being able to use the magic carpet lift and perform a gentle stem turn. Aisha-picked up where she left off with her performances at Hemel, moving with great confidence down the mountain demonstrating brilliant turns over longer distances. Kia-has proven to be the most confident skier across both schools and is was credit to Kia that she effortlessly slotted into her group being the only Alfriston representative. We wish you were here to see the amazing progress all girls have made on their very first day.

After skiing we walked onto the Pila fun park area where we had a great time shooting the slopes in rubber doughnuts. Even though they all appeared exhausted at the end of the ski session, surprisingly they, endlessly come down on the doughnuts. Back for a shower and dinner before an amble around the historic town of Pila. Looking at the cathedral and a tree that had been struck down by lightning in 1951. Arbour Vale and Alfriston are continuing to mix and work well together. All girls tucked up in bed and we are also heading there too.

More snow
Miss Leahy and Mrs Knibbs

(Monday)

Hello All

Today has been a very productive day all round, with massive progress made up in the mountains. The morning was spent consolidating yesterday achievements and gaining confidence over longer distances along with more greater independence.

As the day progressed Aisha joined Kia and the guys from Arbour Vale further up the mountain and everybody else from Alfriston had an amazing afternoon independently completing numerous runs over a greater distance, which included a steeper slope and have all demonstrated the required techniques to take the cable car further up the mountain-all were extremely pleased with their individual achievements today!!! The success on the slopes was followed with a trip to an ice-cream parlour, where the choice of flavours left many pondering for a good few minutes!

We have just enjoyed a walk around Pila following our dinner before settling down for the night before embarking on what promises to be another ‘epic’ adventure tomorrow.

Miss Leahy and Mrs Knibbs

(Tuesday)

Hello All,

We can once again report that massive progress is continuing to be made up in the mountains. It was really good today to have both groups skiing further up the mountain. This included the vastly improving group (we are no longer beginners!!!!) taking a chair lift and cable car for the first time in order to progress further up the mountain and explore a number of longer runs across Pila.

By taking the chair lift further up both groups were also able to meet and share a whole group ski down with Kia and the pupils from Arbour Vale leading the way. It was good to see Kia confidently leading her group out behind the instructor and forming the start of the trail down. Everybody has completed a blue run today, which did include some rather steeper gradients than previously experienced on ‘baby Pila’ however all demonstrated excellent control, speed and awareness to negotiate much longer, wider and busy areas.

To finish the day everybody has enjoyed a nice relaxed pizza evening at a local pizzeria where there was an endless supply of varying pizza’s freshly baked, which went down well along with an ice-cream to round things off.

Here’s to another epic day tomorrow…………..

(Wednesday)

Hello All,

Another successful day with even greater distances and gradients covered, with everybody’s endurance tested during both morning and afternoon sessions. Progress is still coming along nicely for all individuals with many attempting parallel work over the course of the day.

Ice skating was on the agenda for this evening however due to tiredness the girls had a chilled evening socialising with each other back in the hotel and an early night ready to maximise our time on the slopes when hitting them for the final time tomorrow.

Due to skiing all day tomorrow and a presentation in the evening we will be returning to the hotel and packing in preparation for leaving on Saturday so do not anticipate having time to email. Therefore we look forward to seeing you all on Saturday when we return.

The girls will be very tired and may ache but in due course will have many stories to tell about their antics on the slopes. Enjoy the remaining few days whilst we savour the last day on the slopes.

Safer Internet Day 2015 will be celebrated globally on Tuesday 10th February with the slogan ‘Let’s create a better internet together’.

Coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the celebration sees hundreds of organisations get involved to help promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people.

Globally, Safer Internet Day is celebrated in over a hundred countries, coordinated by the joint Insafe/INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission, and 31 national Safer Internet Centres across Europe.

The day offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role we all play in helping to create a better and safer online community. It calls upon young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers, and wider, to join together in helping to create a better internet. Ultimately, a better internet is up to us!

Pupils at Alfriston will be focusing on e-safety all week. Classroom activities range from “speed-friending” to writing their own code of conduct for emails. They will also be thinking about how to make the Internet better in a whole school assembly. Outside the classroom anybody can get involved by taking the SID quiz so why not have a go yourself?

Despite all the technological development that has evolved, the ‘unstealable’ mobile is yet to be designed, and with the increased functionality of our smart phones, comes an increase in mobile phone crime:

There are 2 million phone thefts every year, with children and young adults the most likely victims.

Mobile phone theft now accounts for about 45 per cent of all thefts on the London Underground.

Two thirds of robberies are committed by offenders working in groups.

About a half of all street robberies in Britain involve mobile phone theft and almost half of these victims are aged between 12 and 16.

Given that an increasing number of younger children are using mobile phones and apps, often carrying mobile phones for personal safety and keeping in touch, we need to ensure that we are not in fact endangering our children. We need to educate ourselves and our young people about the risks and how to reduce it and perhaps we should all be more diligent when using mobile phones.

The Out of Your Hands campaign offers some good advice.

To stay safe when you are out with your phone:

Try to keep your mobile separate from your keys, purse or wallet.

set your phone to silent and keep it in a pocket.

In busy public places, keep your mobile in an inside pocket or hold it inside your bag.

Don’t use your mobile in a place where you feel unsafe, unless it is an emergency. Move to a safer place if you can.

Avoid alley ways and short cuts that are away from main roads – especially if you are alone.

Always tell someone where you are going and what time you expect to be home.

Take special care anywhere crowded:

On buses, trains and the underground

Concerts

Entering or leaving rail and tube stations

If you are buying a secondhand phone:

visit a site such as CheckMEND to find out if the item you’re buying has been reported lost or stolen. www.checkmend.com/uk

Register your phone

Your mobile network should have a way of blocking your phone within 48 hours of you contacting them, so the phone is then useless to anyone else.

Also special websites such as www.immobilise.com help to fight this type of crime and work to return property to its rightful owner.

When a mobile phone is made, it is given a unique electronic serial number known as the IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity. By registering this number with Immobilise, your mobile handset can be blocked if it is lost or stolen. This makes it unusable on any network.

Here’s what to do:

1.Dial *#06# on your mobile phone to display your unique IMEI number.

2.Make a note of it on the front of this booklet, then use it to register your mobile phone at www.immobilise.com

3.If your mobile phone is lost or stolen and you don’t know the number of your network provider, call 08701 123 123 for further information.

Even with the help of Immobilise we can’t stop thieves accessing the web from wifi enabled handsets, or more importantly, from accessing your personal details. So make sure you password or PIN protect sensitive information, or better still store it away from your handset in a password protected email account. You can also download the technology to track and even communicate with perpetrators using apps such as ‘Find My iPhone’, ‘lookout mobile security’ and ‘Norton mobile security’.